Chapter 1091: The Western Prefecture in Peril

To be fair, the defense strategy of the Uyghur ruler and his ministers could not be called poor—though it erred on the side of caution, caution also meant safety, for they had already weighed the strength of the Khitan western expeditionary army and knew it was no easy foe to repel.

Although the Western Uyghur Kingdom had ample population and could field over a hundred thousand troops without difficulty, and its national strength could sustain a prolonged effort, that required time—for the Uyghurs could hardly be called a highly unified, centralized dynasty, and internally they were not a monolith.

At the same time, fighting a defensive counter-war behind strong city walls was the optimal strategy available to them. After all, the winding Tianshan mountain range stretched east to west, forming a natural defensive barrier for Gaochang. If the Liao army wished to advance from Beiting, the usual route was either to attack west toward Luntai and then turn southwest through the basin toward Gaochang—but this required first securing the fall of Luntai, then breaching Gaochang's final gateway, the White Water Fortress.

The other route was to go east, bypassing the Tianshan obstacles and entering through the southern foothills—but that was time-consuming and laborious, and there was a stumbling block in the way: Yizhou.

Therefore, just as the Uyghurs had considered, although the Khitan western expeditionary army had taken Beiting and won a great victory, forcefully suppressing the Uyghur counterattacks, their strategic progress was not encouraging.

Relying on the Tianshan, holding Luntai in the north, and blocking Yizhou in the east—for the Uyghurs, this was indeed a safe choice with extremely low risk.

However, dragging things out and fighting a war of attrition was ultimately just wishful thinking on the Uyghurs' part. Their opponent was Yelu Xiezhen, a commander who had shone brightly among the Liao army during the great Han-Liao war.

The Uyghurs dreamed too fondly—how could Yelu Xiezhen not have considered the full picture? If the enemy wanted to stall, he would simply refuse to give them the chance. But the objective problem was that breaking through the Uyghur defense line was indeed no easy task.

Yet there has never been a truly impregnable city in this world; no matter how tight a defense line appears, it has its flaws. And accidents often happen where people are most confident.

After much deliberation, Yelu Xiezhen decided to take a risk—having already crossed one golden mountain, what was one more Tianshan? After thorough preparation, in the winter of the fifteenth year of Qianyou, Yelu Xiezhen had the Liao general Yelu Gu lead five thousand cavalry, along with a portion of surrendered troops, feigning to be the main force. They made a great show of force, creating a huge commotion, advancing westward with every appearance of being determined to take Luntai.

Meanwhile, Yelu Xiezhen himself led the main Liao army, guided by scouts, secretly crossing the mountains along a Tianshan path that had been reconnoitered long in advance.

Such narrow mountain trails, cramped and perilous, were never suited for large troop movements, and if the enemy were prepared, they could easily block them, even inflicting heavy losses—yet they often achieved the effect of complete surprise.

And this time, Yelu Xiezhen's gamble paid off. Apart from the rugged peaks themselves, he encountered no other obstacles—the Uyghurs had completely overlooked this possibility.

Though over a thousand soldiers were lost, along with many warhorses and livestock, when the Liao army successfully entered the Yi-Gao Basin, the effect was once again like divine troops descending from heaven.

From then on, the vast plains and lands became a free-ranging pasture for Khitan iron cavalry. After successfully crossing the mountains, Yelu Xiezhen once again chose to strike directly at the capital, Gaochang, intending to settle the matter in one battle.

However, this time the objective was not achieved. Although the appearance of the Liao cavalry was startling, even terrifying, the news could not be completely concealed, and moreover, since the war began, Gaochang's vigilance had increased considerably.

The surprise attack failed, but the enemy who had previously been stalled before the walls of Luntai suddenly appearing at the city gates—the shock it delivered to Gaochang was easy to imagine. It was like a dream, except it was a nightmare.

The Uyghur Khagan was greatly alarmed and personally ascended the city walls, where he could only see, in the bleak east wind, the forest of Khitan banners, the sturdy warhorses and armored soldiers, and that aura that made their hearts tremble. Such a scene nearly left the Uyghur Khagan, who had never truly experienced war, feeling dazed.

In Gaochang city, from the Khagan and his ministers at the top to the poor commoners and laborers at the bottom, all were panic-stricken at the enemy's approach to the walls, and it was with great difficulty that they finally calmed themselves.

Yelu Xiezhen led his men on a circuit around Gaochang city and found it truly formidable, not easy to take. The army lacked siege equipment, which made attacking the city even more disadvantageous.

So he sent someone into the city to urge surrender. Surrender was clearly impossible. The Uyghur Khagan was quite resolute, angrily denouncing the Liao army's unjust invasion, enumerating the crimes the Khitan had inflicted upon the Uyghur people, and finally refused in stern terms, driving the envoy out of Gaochang.

Although the main Uyghur forces were mostly stationed at Luntai, the capital still retained nearly ten thousand troops, and the city's residents plus the refugees they had taken in numbered over a hundred thousand. Relying on the sturdy city walls, it was certainly not something the Khitan could breach.

Of course, the Uyghurs had the confidence to defend the city—and naturally, sallying out to repel the enemy was out of the question.

Faced with the strong city, Yelu Xiezhen was not impatient. Having crossed the natural barrier and entered the Turpan Basin, there was no need to rush. Living off the enemy's land, the Liao army had fewer troops than the Uyghurs, but that also meant fewer burdens.

So Yelu Xiezhen personally led five thousand cavalry to keep watch on Gaochang, while dispatching his subordinate generals with the remaining forces to raid Uyghur towns and pastures in all directions, plundering wealth and requisitioning grain, horses, livestock, and able-bodied men.

For a time, the flames of war spread across the southern foothills of the Tianshan; between Yi and Gao, everything was ravaged by the Khitan. Under such circumstances, the Uyghurs seemed to have been stunned into numbness, with no means of counterattack, able only to sit and defend strong cities like Gaochang and Yizhou.

The great cities could be preserved, but the towns scattered along the Silk Road had no adequate defensive capability—except for a few that fought to the death, most fell victim to disaster.

The Liao army's methods naturally stirred considerable resistance. Inside Gaochang, there were hot-blooded men who could not bear the Liao army's atrocities and begged the Uyghur Khagan for permission to fight, while the city's populace was also seething with indignation.

Unable to withstand the repeated pleas, and seeing his ravaged land and people, the Uyghur Khagan's heart bled as well. So he sent troops out to attack, hoping to catch the Liao forces off guard while they were scattered. The result: Yelu Xiezhen was fully prepared, commanded calmly, and once again defeated the Gaochang Uyghurs.

It was only because the Uyghurs had mustered enough troops within the city to defend it that Yelu Xiezhen was denied the chance to enter on the heels of his victory. And the Luntai relief army, which had been ordered by the Uyghur Khagan to come to the rescue, upon learning of the battle situation at Gaochang, was so frightened that it turned back halfway and retreated to the White Water Fortress.

After that, the Uyghurs dared not make any further moves. They could only sit in their cities, passively waiting, watching the Liao army ravage the land. In terms of strength, the Western Uyghurs certainly had it, and it could not be called weak—yet when the enemy came, they could not effectively organize resistance or bring their strength to bear.

Possessing a million households to no avail, in the end they could only defend separately, allowing fewer than thirty thousand enemy troops to ravage their territory unchecked. Having gone so many years without experiencing war on this scale, facing the Khitan invasion, the Uyghurs were at a loss from start to finish, passively taking the beating.

After throwing the region between Yi and Gao into complete chaos, Yelu Xiezhen ordered the Liao army to drive the people of various localities to beneath the walls of Gaochang—especially the old, the weak, the women, and the children.

And he sent word to the Uyghur Khagan, saying that the lands of Yi and Gao had all reverted to the Great Liao, and these people had no homes to return to. Taking pity on their plight, he would allow the Khagan to take them in, and would absolutely not attack while doing so.

To this, even if what Yelu Xiezhen said was true, the Uyghur Khagan dared not agree. First, he was wary of Yelu Xiezhen's cunning; second, the city had already taken in a large number of refugees, and letting in more all at once would put enormous pressure on the food supply.

With the grain stored in the city, a few dozen or a few hundred extra mouths made no difference—but tens of thousands more was another matter entirely. And so, large numbers of Uyghur commoners, denied entry to the city ahead and pressed by Liao cavalry behind, froze and starved to death beneath the walls of Gaochang that winter in numbers beyond counting.

At that time, the common people of Xizhou were not only furious at the Liao army's killing and plundering, but also resentful of the Western Uyghur upper class for their inaction and abandonment of them.

Thereafter, to survive, many Uyghurs brought their entire families—people and horses alike—and defected to the Liao army. When faced with the choice between life and death, most people would make the decision readily and easily.

With those Uyghurs serving them, the Liao army's shortfall in manpower disappeared. Seizing this opportunity, Yelu Xiezhen rested and reorganized his forces, while gathering all the Uyghur craftsmen in the controlled areas to forge weapons and siege equipment, preparing to break Gaochang.

During this process, both Yizhou to the east and Karasahr to the west sent troops to relieve the city, and all were defeated by Yelu Xiezhen. By the spring of the first year of Kaibao, no military or civilian force in the territories of the Western Uyghurs dared come to Gaochang's rescue—and so Gaochang's days grew even harder.

After adequate rest and preparation, Yelu Xiezhen formally ordered the assault on Gaochang city. The attacking forces consisted mainly of surrendered Uyghurs. But Gaochang was indeed formidable, and its defenders' resolve was firm; under the fierce assault, several thousand died without the city falling.

Thereafter, Yelu Xiezhen divided his forces and turned to attack Yizhou. Yizhou had suffered heavy losses in its earlier relief efforts, and its walls were neither as tall nor as strong as Gaochang's. The Liao army and its auxiliary troops attacked without regard for casualties; after half a month of resistance, the city fell.

With this, Yelu Xiezhen eliminated the hidden threat at his rear—everything east of Gaochang fell under Liao control. Unless the Guiyi Army dared come west to poke the Liao army in the rear.

After resolving this lingering concern, Yelu Xiezhen once again surrounded the city. His original plan was to starve out the Uyghurs inside, but through surrendered Uyghur civil and military officials, he learned that the city's grain reserves could sustain them for a full year—dragging things out was not a viable approach.

So Yelu Xiezhen ultimately decided to continue the fierce assault, having enough surrendered Uyghurs to do the attacking. After two months of intermittent but powerful onslaughts, and once April arrived, Yelu Xiezhen sent the Khitan troops in as well—and finally, Gaochang city fell.

After the city fell, the Uyghur Khagan led his harem, his children, and a portion of his civil and military officials in a retreat westward, falling back to the city of Karasahr. They fled quickly, and they succeeded. The Liao army, having fought a bloody and bitter battle, needed to rest and also to enjoy the fruits of victory; the pursuit yielded nothing, so they did not press deeper.

The Uyghur Khagan did not linger long at Karasahr. He gathered troops and followers and continued west, withdrawing to Kucha. After all, Karasahr was not far from Gaochang and equally dangerous, while the Kucha Uyghurs had not suffered heavy losses in the earlier fighting and still retained considerable strength that could be relied upon.

It was only after fleeing to Kucha that the Uyghur Khagan realized that relying on himself alone, he would sooner or later be destroyed by the Liao army. So he began sending envoys in all directions to request support...

Among them was Pule, who came eastward.